ESCONDIDO: City to sell off remaining books at closed library branch

Former patrons of the closed East Valley Branch Library in
Escondido will have a last chance to pick a best-seller off the
shelf this weekend when the city holds a sale to clear all books
from the building.

About 10,000 books and several shelves of movies on videotape
are scheduled to go on sale from noon to 7 p.m. Sept. 9 and 10 a.m.
to 2 p.m. Sept. 10 at the old branch library, 2245 E. Valley
Parkway, which closed in June because of budget cuts.

The branch once held about 54,500 volumes, and about 44,000
books have been moved to the main library. At the invitation of
recently retired librarian Laura Mitchell, 15 Escondido elementary
school teachers then took about 40 boxes of children's books for
their students.

The 10,000 or so books that remain are about twice the number
the Friends of the Escondido Public Library usually has in its
inventory in the bookstore at the main library, 239 S. Kalmia St.,
said Friends President Elmer Cameron.

Readers usually can get great deals at the Friends' store, and
they'll find even better deals next Friday and Saturday at the East
Valley sale, when paperbacks will go for 25 cents and hardbound
books for $1.

Cameron said Friends of the Escondido Library raised about
$74,000 for the library in book sales throughout the year. This
will be the group's biggest effort ever, with volunteers staffing
the branch, trying to sell thousands of books, videotapes and
audiotapes in just two days.

Most books that do not sell will be donated to Disabled American
Veterans, but others will be returned to the main library.

"If this doesn't sell, we're not going to throw it away,"
Cameron said after noticing a hardbound reference book about
mammals of the world.

Mayor Sam Abed said the city has not decided what to do with the
additional room that will come when the books and shelves are
cleared out, though there have been talks with the YMCA and the
Boys & Girls Club.

"Basically, we will maintain an East Valley Community Center and
will maintain a computer lab," he said of plans for the building,
which also includes a full-size gym with courts for basketball,
volleyball or badminton.

Abed said 40 computers in the center will provide much-needed
Internet access to the community and will be less expensive to
operate than the library, which he said cost about $250,000
annually in overhead.

While most of the branch shelves are empty, there still are
treasures to be found. Cameron said he will be spending this week
researching some books that may be too valuable for the book
sale.

Some books that don't sell will be taken back to the main
library and others, such as a 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary,
will be put on eBay, he said. Friends of the Escondido Library once
received a donated book on aviation that turned out to be worth
$497, he said.